Malleability
by neopyro
Summary: AU. Harry is rescued from the Dursleys by an Unspeakable and taken back to the Department of Mysteries. Little does he know he is to become their test Guinea pig. Rated M.
1. Prologue

Malleability

Prologue

As usual, Harry Potter was running for his very life. It was July 31st, 1984. Harry's fourth birthday. Dudley had picked up a new member of his gang today… and he was fast. His name was Piers Polkiss. Now, the game of Harry Hunting wasn't as easy for him to escape from. In fact, he thought Piers was gaining on him.

Harry's heart was pounding in his chest. He could hear every footfall of Dudley's gang. They were fifty feet behind him. Maybe less.

Harry turned into an alley, making sure to knock over a few empty trash cans, hoping it would slow down his pursuers.

Harry exited the alley and bolted across the road. Just in time for the light to turn green. Would the traffic slow the gang down?

Apparently it wasn't Harry's day for luck, as there were no cars on the road in either direction. In the alley, he heard a load crash. Someone must have tripped on the trashcans.

Angry yells and a grunt of pain. Someone had crashed into the body of the tripped person. Harry just kept running, knowing that if they saw him again, he'd be chased after. And the gang was usually much faster when they were angry.

Harry turned the corner and cut into another alley. Suddenly, Harry was flat on his back and the wind had been knocked out of him. He'd run into…nothing?

It was weird. Harry had definitely run into something, but nothing was there.

"Kid!" a hoarse voice whispered. A man appeared out of nowhere. He was wearing a cloak. "Kid! Get under here and they won't see you!"

Harry did what he was told, albeit reluctantly and allowed himself to be wrapped in this man's cloak and disappear from sight.

"I can't-" Harry started. He was cut off by a "SHH!" from the stranger.

Harry watched Dudley and his gang run past the mouth of the alley.

"I think we lost him!" one of the boys said.

"He can't have gone far!" Piers insisted. "Split up, we'll find him!"

Harry heard the sound of footsteps going off in all different directions.

Harry felt the cloak being pulled off of him.

"Thank you." Harry managed to say. "I… was that cloak…magic?"

"It was." The man responded. "But to be honest, I should be thanking you! You just saved me a lot of trouble. I was looking for you, Mr. Potter."

"Me?" Harry asked.

"You." The man answered. "I was sent here to take you away from here. Away from you abusive Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. Forever."

"Forever?" Harry asked. He couldn't help getting his hopes up. Leaving the Dursley's forever? It was almost too good to be true.

"Do you have any belongings you would like to retrieve?" the stranger asked.

"No." Harry answered firmly.

The man shook his head sadly for some reason.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked the man.

"Just a little place we call 'The Department of Mysteries.'" The stranger replied. "If you hold on to my arm, we can leave."

Harry reached up and took the stranger's arm. Harry briefly felt like he was being sucked through a garden hose. Then there was a pop, and he tumbled out onto the floor of the Ministry of Magic.

"This way, Mr. Potter." The stranger instructed him. The man strode off down the hallway. It was only then that Harry realized that he couldn't quite see the stranger's face. It was… cloudy, and always seemed to be changing.

"What's wrong with your head?" Harry asked.

For some strange reason, Harry felt that the man should have laughed. He didn't. "This, is an Unspeakable mask, Mr. Potter. It constantly changes your facial features so that you are unidentifiable to the common eye."

"Oh." Harry responded.

Like a puppy, Harry followed the strange man past hundreds of even stranger people wearing clothes he'd never seen before.

Soon, Harry was standing in front of a long deserted corridor with a dark door at the end. Harry followed the stranger to the end, and through the door.

A man was there to greet them when they entered. The newcomer, just like his strange rescuer spoke in a blank, expressionless voice. His face was blurry and constantly changing as well. "Did you find him?"

As if on cue, Harry stepped into the room.

'Looks like some kind of Labrotory.' Harry thought. 'I wonder if those are real brains?'

"Ah, good afternoon Mister Potter. We would like to conduct a few experiments on you, if you don't mind? You are a special case after all." Harry vaguely noticed that the Unspeakable that had brought him in was gone now.

"How am I special, sir?" Harry asked.

"Because of this!" The Unspeakable lifted up Harry's bangs with his index finger, touching his scar.

Harry shivered, and felt his scar burn ever-so-slightly.

"Ok." Harry replied. Apparently he wouldn't get a fully detailed explanation out of these people. He followed the Unspeakable through a few rooms and finally into a room with a hospital bed. The man had already put on a white lab coat.

Another Unspeakable joined them.

"Ahh good. Please sit down on that bed right there Mr. Potter." The new arrival said.

Harry sat. "Please drink this." The man offered Harry a small green vial full of a substance that smelled vaguely minty.

Harry had given up on questions, and drank the potion. He fell asleep almost instantly.

"Interesting…" the first Unspeakable said, waving his wand over Harry's sleeping form. "Very interesting."

"What is it?" the second inquired.

"He has power reserves already. Untapped ones." Said the First.

"Untapped power reserves? At age four? That's not possible." The second responded.

"Apparently Mr. Potter is a special case. He could prove to be a very interesting specimen."

"Indeed. And what of his magical potential?"

"Off the charts."

"But we've always been able to double-" The second started.

"Exactly. I think we will finally have a wizard capable of enduring our experiments. We could finally create the perfect human being."

"I thought that project was canned."

"Wizardkind's blood is running thin. We simply need to make a new one. A new wizard with an intense desire to…freshen the gene pool. He could save our species."

"Indeed." The second agreed.


	2. Chapter 1

Malleability

Chapter one

Harry awoke the next morning, sick as a dog. But the Unspeakables had told him he would feel pretty bad for awhile so it was okay. They explained that it would make him better. Stronger even.

Harry sat up and reached to the nightstand for his glasses, only to find they weren't there.

"Looking for these?" a man in Unspeakable robes asked from across the room.

"Yes." Harry answered. "I can't see that well without them."

"I'm sorry Mr. Potter… but I cannot give them to you. With the glasses, your magic has no reason to help you compensate for your vision. By keeping your glasses from you, your eyes will heal themselves. I believe you said you had difficulty reading things that are up close without your glasses, correct?"

Harry looked disappointed. "Yes."

"Then I will now place a temptation here for you." Harry felt something land in his lap. A book. "I have bookmarked the chapter relevant to your role in history thus far. If you can read it… then it is your knowledge to keep. I believe it also says a little bit about your parents…" The Unspeakable trailed off, and left the room.

"Your meal will arrive in an hour or so. Please alert someone if you wish to attempt to leave the bed." The Unspeakable called over his shoulder.

Harry sat dumbly looking down at his book. His eyes could just barely make out the words on the cover. "The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts."

Harry had no clue what that meant. Harry opened the book to the bookmarked section. He had to close it before he even finished the first page due to a pounding headache he gave himself. With a sigh, he laid back down in bed and waited for lunch.

Over the next few days, Harry began to understand things about his surroundings. For one thing, the Unspeakables spent as little time in his room as possible. But not out of a desire to stay away from him. Harry had left the room a few times, and whenever he did, the Unspeakables were practically tripping over themselves to talk to him and explain whatever he wanted to know.

He began to realize that his room was…different. Even the air in the room felt…different. His sheets were unlike any other cloth he had ever felt. They were woven together with thick, black hair from…something. They were strangely soft. Just weird. He asked an unspeakable what it was made out of, and he responded with two words. "Thestral mane." Harry asked what a Thestral was. This time he got three words. "A magical horse."

The feathers in his pillow were different too. Sometimes a tiny piece of down would push its way through the thick but soft Thestral cloth. The feather was red, not white or grey like it was for other feathers. "A Cardinal?" Harry wondered.

Harry also discovered that the Unspeakable he'd spoken to that first morning was quite right. His eyes did get better. He'd read the chapter pertaining to himself a few times and understood the gist of it, but not everything. Apparently, some evil wizard had gotten mad at his parents and killed them. The evil wizard tried to kill Harry too, but it didn't work like it was supposed to.

So, Harry read the entire book out of boredom. He was starting to feel slightly better, but he wasn't allowed out of bed too often.

He noticed that Dark Wizards seemed to pop up every fifty to seventy years. Just long enough for the people to get fat and content once more. It usually took somewhere between five and twenty years to destroy them.

Over time, Harry's vision reached the level that he was used to from his glasses. His sickness went away, and they brought him more books.

"Hogwarts, a History" was the first book they brought. The second was "Standard book of Spells: Grade one." Slowly, Harry worked his way through the grades.

Finally, Harry asked one of the Unspeakables "But how do you actually cast magic? I don't have a wand. The book just tells you what incantation to say. Is that all you do?"

"No, Harry. You need to focus on what you want. When you cast a spell…Say for instance 'Lumos,' the light spell you need to focus in your mind on how much light you want. Otherwise, how would the spell know what you wanted?"

"Ohhhhh." Harry said with a nod.

"Tell you what Harry. Tonight, I will bring you a wand. I will take you into the magical training room and teach you to cast a few spells. After that, you're on your own but you can enter the training room any time you like except during the nights where we insist you stay in your room."

Harry nodded enthusiastically and went back to memorize a few more spells from the Standard Book of Spells (Year five, this time.)

That evening, the Unspeakable arrived at Harry's room.

He nodded to Harry and said a short "Follow me." And lead Harry down the hall to a room.

"Now, I will teach you a spell from each of the categories of magic. You will then go into the room and practice them, and any other spells you memorized to until your heart is content. I will only explain them once. Ready?"

Harry nodded.

The Unspeakable placed a small white feather on the ground. "This is from Charms. _Wingardrium Leviosa._" The feather levitated, did a brief loop in the air and landed once more.

"From Transfiguration. _Rehtaefotkcirb_." The feather turned into a brick and back again.

Harry absorbed the information like a sponge, and the Unspeakable taught him the shield charm, _sectumsempra_, and a conjuration spell. Specifically for small, portable blue flames.

"Now, before you go, I must ask that you not practice any magic outside the practice room. It is illegal for children to practice magic until the age of eleven. The room has anti-detection charms on it so nobody will get in trouble though."

"Yes, Sir." Harry agreed.

Harry reached down to take the feather so he could go inside and practice.

"Ah, that is my feather. Here is yours." The Unspeakable said, handing him another feather. He also handed Harry a wand. The Unspeakable unlocked the door and turned on the light. He closed the door behind Harry and shut the door. He watched Harry practice the spells through the soundproof, indestructible glass. Every spell Harry cast caused the Unspeakable to make tiny little notes on his clipboard.

"How is he?" another Unspeakable asked.

"Astounding. He has recovered a week early from the blood transfusion. Leaving him in a room full of intensely magical items must have helped too. I took a power reading on him this morning and it was already 25 higher than it was when we brought him in."

The other Unspeakable let out a low whistle.

"You took down the suppression field on the room for him though, right?"

"No. He's practicing with it on full."

"You're kidding! That kid just transfigured that feather into a bird under a magic suppression field?"

"That's just the tip of the iceberg."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. That wand he's using? It's not a wand. I picked a twig off the tree in the Ministry Arboretum. I peeled it today and polished it. That stick is a regular piece of birch."

"Very impressive."

"Indeed. Even I was shocked to see him Transfigure a Roc feather."

"But Rocs are highly resistant to-"

"I know. I know."

They watched for a few minutes more. As they were about to return to conversation, they heard the door open.

"Erm…." Harry started nervously. "I think I need a new feather. He opened his hands and revealed that they were full of ashes.

Harry didn't hear their response, however because he suddenly toppled forward. He was out like a light.

Over the next few weeks, Harry fell into a routine. Monday through Friday, Harry was free to do what he liked, provided they were activities sanctioned by the Unspeakables. Harry generally spent this time reading, practicing in the magic training room and training in a physical training room that he was allowed to play in. He particularly enjoyed the trampoline and the stair master. Harry barely noticed that the gravity in his training room was getting increased by 1/365th of a point every day. So, that meant three years after he started training, the room would be at four times Earth Gravity.

Friday night, once Harry had his fun, he would be administered a dreamless sleep potion. After that, the Unspeakables would conduct their "tests" and Harry would wake up Monday morning to repeat his schedule. Harry was blissfully unaware of how subtly he was being manipulated. Shaped into something else.


	3. Chapter 2

A/n: This chapter will be sort of like a written montage. Time passing pretty quickly. We don't need to keep Harry as a little kid forever, neh?

Malleability

Chapter Two

Harry always remembered asking what was in the locked room. He was allowed to access any room in the entire department except that one room. Nobody ever went in… or out. When Harry asked about it, they responded that he would see it when the time came.

Gradually, as he aged, Harry began to notice things that he hadn't noticed before. There were subtle differences between certain Unspeakables that he could pick up on, to tell them apart. One had smelly feet, and Harry named him Luke. Another walked with a bit of a sway, and had a flowery scent. Harry was almost certain this one was female, and named her Jane. Another one always had a "Holier-Than-Thou" attitude. Harry named him Dick. There were a few others. Larry, Jill and Martin were frequent visitors. There were a few others that were operatives and so Harry didn't see them often and had thusly only named a few. Mike, Boris, Claudia and Darryl were the only ones of the ten operatives he knew of that had names. At least, names that he'd given them.

But he noticed other things as well. He already knew he was being trained for a specific purpose. Maybe several specific purposes, but he didn't mind too much since they treated him well.

If they wanted him to learn something, a book would appear at some random place that people knew he would find. To humor them, he read it. Harry would almost always find out something different about himself after each of the "testing sessions." Maybe he'd find a recently healed incision somewhere, or a spot on his arm where an I.V. line was hooked up. Sometimes his vision would appear sharper, or he would have stronger emotions. Subtle things, never any blatant evidence of what they did. Harry always suspected whatever they did would manifest itself later in his life.

Some days, he would be taken somewhere by an operative, to visit someplace or see a specific scene. These scenes were always real things that happened, gathered together to make an impact on him. Most of the time they would use an hourglass device that Harry later learned was called a "Time Turner."

There seemed to be no pattern or correlation between any of the things he saw. They simply were scenes found specifically so that he would remember them. And he did.

Harry still read books at an astounding pace. They were always there when he wanted them, and there was almost always something that interested him to read.

Harry eventually discovered the purpose of the room he was staying in. The sheets were made out of hairs from the mane of a thestral. His nightstand was made out of the bones of a deceased ancient dragon. His pillow was stuffed with the down of a phoenix. His clothes were made from anything from Unicorn hair, to Acromantula silk. The intent was to expose him to as much magic as possible so that it would sort of… rub off on him. In addition to the magical components around the room, the Unspeakables occasionally brought him playmates so that he didn't feel too lonely. They were never simply human. Harry's visitors included Veelas, Vampires, Werewolves, Merfolk and even Goblins. Especially Goblins. Harry's first guest was a Goblin child, a few years older than him. At one point, the Goblin stubbed his toe and ranted in Gobbledegook for a few seconds.

Harry looked on in awe and asked him to do it again. Somehow, Harry had a natural affinity for the language and learned a basic layout that day. After that success, Harry found himself with Goblin tutors a few days a week. Once Harry mastered the language, he moved on to Goblin history and culture. After that, they moved into education on the subject that Goblins know best: money.

After two years of continuous study under the Goblins, Harry probably could have taught an economics course at almost any college in the world.

Veelas weren't as popular for him. They seemed too…superficial. Harry figured that there had only been one of two possible purposes for his meeting with the Veelas. Either for Harry to learn to resist the Veela charm… or for him to succumb to it.

Harry managed to resist it, even when the Veela girl got annoyed and put her charm on full. Needless to say, she wasn't invited back.

Harry learned very quickly that Werewolves were just regular people. However, Harry made the mistake of inviting one into his exercise room. Apparently five times earth gravity was too much for him, and Harry had to carry him out of there. Since then, the werewolf boy was a little scared of Harry and he never saw him again.

The Merfolk, however were quite pleasant to be with. He found their language to be just short of impossible, but that didn't stop him from attempting to learn it. Though he learned how to speak it, by spending a lot of time amongst Mer-children he found that his speech was horribly accented and because he couldn't get the tones quite right, he occasionally mis-conjugated a verb, making himself appear illiterate.

As a bit of a surprise, Harry was given a potion made of the essence of Gillyweed that would last five days, and he spent one of his weeks underneath the Hogwarts lake with the Merpeople. They enjoyed his company, and taught him a piece of their own peculiar brand of magic. It was sort of like using potions ingredients in magic. To cast a shield charm, for example they would need a particularly hard rock or the shell of a crustacean. The harder the object was, the better the charm would be. Any object would work for the spell, but some things worked a lot better than others. Harry learned that the object used would not disappear when he used it. He would just borrow some of the inherent magic inside it and meld it with his own magic and intent to cast the spell. After the spell was cast, the magic would return to the object, so theoretically he could use the same shell to cast a hundred shield charms with the last one being just as strong as the first. Additionally, a component could be used any number of different ways. A dragon's scale could be used to make himself breathe fire, become fire-proof, grow armor, cast a shield charm, or if you were powerful enough, to turn yourself into a dragon. The magic was only limited by your imagination.

Harry was taught how to use a fish or other Merfolk to cast the water-breathing charm on himself and on others. Harry reflected that this could be useful as he could now cast the shield charm on other people instead of just himself.

Harry learned many Merfolk games, and his badly-accented, improperly toned Mermish was a hit with everyone. Even the adults would ask him to say different phrases and speak about anything he liked in their language just so they could hear him talk and jumble everything together. They laughed at him, of course but Harry knew that they were proud of him. He'd made an effort to learn their language, even though it was quite difficult to do with a human tongue.

After his five days under the lake, Harry returned to the surface where an Unspeakable was waiting for him. They took a Portkey back to the department and Harry was issued his weekend's dose of Dreamless sleep potion.

Harry vaguely noticed that although the potion had worn off, the gills on his neck hadn't faded. Harry suspected that this was an effect of long-term Gillypotion exposure. Or maybe some of the magic of the Merfolk rubbed off on him.

Years went by, and Harry changed right along with them. His years in gravity training were definitely paying off, as were his years under extreme magical exposure. He was taller than your average ten year old and had significantly more muscle. His hair remained unchanged, as did his intense emerald green eyes. Most people would estimate his age to something closer to fifteen than ten.

Harry began to think of the department as a bit of a home away from home. Some days, he managed to forget that he'd ever been to Privet Drive. Harry also wondered just how many times he used a time turner. He wasn't sure. It might have had something to do with his premature development.

Harry was a well-read, physically fit ten year old that had just about everything going for him. On his tenth birthday he had been deemed mature enough to hear what they were doing to him on the weekends.

Generally, it involved exposing him to intensely magical substances in such a way that he would gain the benefits of their abilities, somewhat. For example, a phoenix feather might give him the ability to lift slightly heavier weights, extend his life period slightly or give him a slight resistance to fire. It would not, however give him the ability to fly or turn him into a phoenix. It was similar to the way Mer-magic worked, except the scientists would not control which effect that he received (if he received any at all). Nobody seemed to make the decision, it just… happened. It was one of the mysteries that this department was famous for.

The Unspeakables also explained that none of his abilities would manifest yet. They had keyed each potion he took, and each energy transfer spell they cast to a single event. When Harry entered the door that contained the mysterious power that nobody understood.

The Unspeakables were fairly vague about exactly which magical substances they exposed him to, but they did explain that they never exposed him to it just once.

This weekend though, just seemed different. The Unspeakables were antsy. They were all talking about something and he wasn't sure what. They got quiet whenever he was around, as if they were afraid. Finally Harry got annoyed and asked the Unspeakable with the sort of… authoritative air about him to explain exactly was going on this weekend.

"One of the secrets of magic that we've already uncovered about magic is a special potion to give people… that would double the amount of potential magic that their body can store and manipulate. It has been known to cause abilities that were recessive genetic traits that were dormant inside people to manifest. Even if you had the ability to… I don't know… speak parseltongue on a very weak level. Say you only understood 1/16th of the language. The doubling potion, due to some of the obscure arithmantic rules and formulas would actually double it multiple times. Usually six, however the variables sometimes cause it to be eight. Once it was ten but that was due to some fairly obscure circumstances that have never been duplicated. But going through the process could boost that 1/16th bit of Parseltongue understanding up to a full unit of parsel. It could make you fluent. It works the same on other abilities as well. We plan to administer this potion to you tonight, Mr. Potter. Everyone is quite antsy as to what we will discover, as this is the only experiment we have performed on you that we don't have even a guess as to what could happen. We simply have someone with a Time-turner standing by that will go back in time and warn us of the problems if things should go wrong. We have every avenue covered, Mr. Potter. We have accidentally caused some major problems with you multiple times, once even resulting in your death, but we have always gone back and figured out what went wrong, and fixed it."

"So the nightmares I had about Basilisk venom…?" Harry trailed off. The Unspeakable's eyes went wide.

"You truly do remember! That is truly extraordinary, Mr. Potter. You impress me more with each coming day." The Unspeakable praised. Harry beamed.

"How does the potion work though? Could someone take the potion multiple times and just double his already doubled power?" Harry asked.

"No." The Unspeakable answered. "Magical power functions at the same level as your brain. That is, to say that you only ever use a certain percentage of it. The average Witch or Wizard uses roughly 40 of their magical potential. The highest percentage used by any Witch or Wizard to date was Merlin himself, using a massive 49 of his magical power. The potion works by ripping down that barrier between what you use, and what you have, making all of your magic accessible to you. As you can see, the word doubling is actually imprecise, as it turns 40 into 100. It's just a catchy name."

Harry nodded his understanding.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to check on the next batch of Dreamless sleep potion." Harry nodded his agreement, and laid back in bed, deep in thought and waiting for the next change that was to be done to him.

Harry was glad to know of the precautions set in place for in case things went wrong. Harry was amazed at the possibilities of it all. How much experimentation could scientists do if they didn't have to worry about the consequences? If they could do all the cruel things they wanted, such a dissecting a living being or injecting it with a disease or poison… then an Unspeakable could travel back in time from the moment of the autopsy and hand a scientist the results of the experiment before the cruelty was even done.

They could learn anything they wanted. They could assassinate the Minister, just to see if they could, they could give duel against Voldemort, just to see if he could be beaten… and record the data so that they could do better next fight… No wonder everyone was afraid of them.

The Unspeakable returned with the potion and Harry downed it in a single gulp. He passed out instantly.

The next thing Harry knew was that he was being shaken. "Wake up, Mr. Potter. There are things you must know and your body needs to be awake."

Harry sat up and felt himself suddenly gasping for air. He felt vaguely… empty inside. Yet, it seemed that his body still had the same amount of… whatever it was inside him. It just wasn't enough anymore. He needed more of… something. It was like having a cup of water, and pouring it into a much larger cup. While the amount of liquid remains the same, it still looked vastly insignificant when looked at inside its new vessel. He felt like that liquid… yearning for something he'd lost, but didn't have any less than he used to.

Each breath of air he took was like a breath of new life flowing into his body. It was so clean…so pure… so full of energy.

"I…it worked didn't it?" Harry managed.

"Yes… however we made a very elementary mistake. We forgot to measure your power before we doubled it, and thus didn't take into account just how much power you would need to regain to get up to your full magical level again. Apparently we didn't realize just how much your magical level had grown from the training you put yourself through every day. The potion worked, and suddenly your body was straining and gasping for magic. You started…draining it from your surroundings. While not inherently dangerous in itself the massive volume of magic you needed made it so. Four wizards that were in the room with you are now suffering from a severe case of magical exhaustion… and you still needed enough energy to drain the functionality of their masks, the very masks that obscure their identity from the rest of us. Memory charms had to be cast on all of us to erase their identities from our minds. Thankfully, one of them had the foresight to toss you his time turner, which is an extremely powerful magical artifact. It placated your draining effects long enough for us to bring you here. This is the first time it has been safe to approach you since it happened."

"When was that?" Harry asked, noticing a small non-magical hourglass now sitting on his nightstand.

"Yesterday, Mr. Potter."

Harry just sat there shaking his head. "Scientists!" he muttered under his breath.

Harry thought he heard a dry chuckle come from the unspeakable, but it must have been his imagination.

"Once your power stabilizes, you will be free to do what you like. When the other Unspeakables awaken, there will be a meeting. You know many of our secrets, Mr. Potter. We are looking for a solution that will allow you to know them without having to be Obliviated. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised at what is being proposed."

Harry nodded.

"And we will discuss something else." The Unspeakable added.

"What's that?"

"There has been talk of letting you enter the room of Unfathomable Power… before you go to Hogwarts."

Harry promptly fainted.


	4. Chapter 3

A/n: This story will move up to an "M" rating fairly soon. Just an FYI.

Malleability

Chapter Three

Two weeks went by and Harry was finally starting to get used to his now doubled powers. Or so he thought. Unspeakables had been funneling magic into the anti-magic wards around his training room every day, hoping to make things at least a challenge for him, but Harry consistently cast sixth year spells without an issue in an area where most wizards would have an issue even with making simple things like sparks or light.

It was Friday afternoon, and so Harry was expecting the Unspeakables to come deliver his sleeping potion any minute. He just wanted to get a good workout in before he went to sleep. Sure enough, Harry was running his way through his next series of spells when there was a knock on the glass. An Unspeakable. Harry banished the items he'd summoned and watched the walls repair themselves.

"Is it time already?" Harry asked as he stepped out.

"Actually, there will be no potion yet. We need you to empty your magical core for what you are about to do." The Unspeakable replied.

"How?" Harry asked. "My core regenerates very fast, especially in the training room since there's a lot of magic in the air. It'll refill faster than I could drain it."

"Not if you use powerful enough spells." The Unspeakable replied. He tossed Harry a small gold ring.

"What's this?" Harry inquired.

"A supposedly indestructible ring. We want you to fling raw magical power at it until you pass out."

"Raw power? I haven't figured out how to use that yet..." Harry replied.

"There's an incantation that will cause your magical energy to spew out of your wand like a fire hose. The incantation is _Meabrepyh_." ((Pronounced May-uh-bray-uff))

Harry nodded. He was their's on the weekends. He would do what they wanted. It just meant that he'd be tired for awhile.

Harry placed the tiny ring on the ground and stood about ten paces away. He turned around, pointed his wand at it and screamed "_Meabrepyh_!"

Energy exploded from the point of his wand. Pure energy. Completely white. He wanted to break the ring. Maybe to impress them, or maybe just to prove it could be done. He put more power into the spell. He had tunnel-vision. All he saw was the tiny gold ring, unchanging. Unbreakable.

Harry held back his power for a split second, but only so he could gather more. He reached into his core and threw everything he had at the ring.

That was when the world went black. But not because Harry had passed out. Because Harry had taken out the Ministry's power-grid. Harry had expended so much magic that he had caused a brief period of non-magic.

A few seconds later and the smoke cleared. The lights came back on, and there Harry was, still standing, with the shattered remains of his wand pointed at some golden dust in the center of a large, steaming crater.

Then, Harry collapsed with the final thoughts of "I did it" ringing through his head.

Three Unspeakables came into the room with protective suits on. There might have been some harmful effects from having that much magic in the air at one time and wore the suits just to be safe. They wrapped Harry in an invisibility cloak to weaken his magic-stealing habits and took Harry to the place where he was destined to go: The Vault of Unfathomable Power. The door to the room was opened remotely, and Harry was levitated inside from a distance. The door was slammed shut, leaving Harry inside.

---------------------------------Later----------------------------

"How long should we wait?" One Unspeakable asked.

"If Harry doesn't knock on the door in two weeks, we try again. The magic inside should keep him from dying of thirst or hunger before then." The second responded. He turned away, headed back to his research.

"Sir?" The first persisted.

"What is it?"

"He shattered the wards on the training room and broke the self-repairing spell. The Minister is on our asses trying to get us to tell him what happened. Apparently it took out the power and magic for the entire area. What do we tell him?"

"Anything except the truth." The second answered in a way that ended all further discussion.

----------------------------In the Vault---------------------------------

"_**Hello, Harry. It's good to see you again." **_A voice rang out across the infinite whiteness. The voice was soft. Feminine. Yet it was powerful, like a dragon.

"_Where am I?"_ Harry asked. "_Who are you? How do you know my name?"_

"_**Tsk, tsk, Harry. So many questions. I believe mortals call this place the Vault of Unfathomable Power. I call it home. Who I am, is not important, though I am sure you will find out someday. I know you, however because I know everything."**_

"_Everything?" _Harry asked. _"Even the color of my underpants?"_

"_**Plain, black boxer shorts, made from a synthesis of Thestral Mane and the hair of a Unicorn. They are charmed to feel just like cotton."**_

"_Ok, you proved your point, but why am I here?"_

"_**Besides my personal amusement?"**_ The voice laughed. It was heavenly. **_"You are here to investigate a place so magical that the Department of Mysteries was built around it, out of fear of what it might be... and to keep others from discovering it."_**

"_But what is...It? What is this place really? I'm sure it's not just infinite whiteness like the department must think."_

"_**And that, is what you must figure out for yourself, my child."**_

"_I see. So, are there things that you brought me here to tell me?"_

"_**Brought you here? You came here because the Department waited for you to pass out and threw you in here."**_

"_So you expect me to believe that something as powerful as you has no influence outside of this vault?"_

Harry could feel her smile. **_"Maybe. But we are getting off topic. I do have things to tell you. Firstly, you mustn't let them manipulate you too much. They all think you are the tool, but really, you are the hand. Use what them for their bribes and discard them as nothing more significant than a tissue. You have a destiny. They are only stepping stones on your way to meeting it."_**

"_So the Department... and people like Albus Dumbledore-"_

"_**Will attempt to manipulate you and bend you to their will. Let them give their gifts and make you more powerful. Just give them nothing in return, or they will only want more."**_

Harry nodded, only to find that his head hurt, a lot.

"_**Oh! I forgot. I'm terribly sorry. Here... drink."** _ A pair of hands appeared out of nowhere, filled with water. Harry drank from them, and felt his headache vanish. He heard the faint sound of a chain rattling, Then, Harry understood.****

"_You are their prisoner!"_ Harry exclaimed. _"But it has been so long since they imprisoned you, they have forgotten who you are...or even what you are."_

"_**Very good, Harry. Come now, I can tell that you are tired. Sleep, and I will guide you. You will need help getting used to what they have done to you."**_

Harry nodded and approached the voice. He felt arms wrap him in an embrace. Harry returned the embrace and held the form tight. And he slept.

Whoever she was, she was good. She delayed the transformation he was to go through, and let the steps happen one by one instead of all at once like the department had intended. Harry felt each tiny change instead of being overflowed with thousands of sensations at once.

And then, he woke. The whiteness was gone, as was the woman who called him her child. There was an empty steel room, and a small closed door.

Harry knew it was time, and he knew he was ready. He knocked, and waited for the Unspeakables to bring him back into the real world. His understanding of everything was now complete... and he felt himself start to get angry.

Harry also knew what he was capable of. In a flash of fire, Harry Phoenix-flamed out of the vault. The Shockwave that followed his magical transport shattered the unbreakable glass windows of his training room a hundred yards away. The lights flickered. Unspeakables rushing to figure out what happened were knocked flat on their asses.

The first irritated Unspeakable was almost to him.

"Lawrence Dochevny, Born in Edinburgh, Scotland April 3rd, 1959. You attended Durmstrang because you believed that Hogwarts was full of Muggleborn rubbish and got seriously interested in the Dark Arts, and how they could fulfill your sick and twisted fantasies. Once out of school, you contemplated joining the Death Eaters, but decided against it because you suspected that they might end up on the losing side of the war. Instead you got recruited for the Department of Mysteries and you hoped it would allow you to study dark magic freely, without any boundaries set by laws. To this day you have used your cover as an Unspeakable to cast the Imperius on unwilling women and rape them no less than five times." Harry spat out a loogie, nearly missing the man's face. The spit fell to the ground and sizzled like acid. "You make me sick!"

At the last word, a flash of light shot out of Harry's scarred hand and slammed into Lawrence's chest. He screamed.

"Your chest will now bear a scar forming the words 'I am a rapist' and every time time you think of rape, you will feel every drop of fear and pain all five of those women felt, combined. I let you live, Mr Dochevny, don't make me regret it."

"Y-y-yes sir." Lawrence managed before scrambling from the room.

He turned to the second Unspeakable. "Alexander Smith, Born at St. Mungo's June 12th, 1953. You were a Ravenclaw at Hogwarts and married your girlfriend Cassandra Thompson just after school and together you had a child. A daughter. Jane. You are still unsure of if she has your last name or your ex-wife's as you left three months after she was born, fearing that you might never get to have sex with other women. However, when you found that nobody except her wanted to have sex with you, you hid away instead of killing yourself and took the most anonymous job you could find. This one. Your wife is working three jobs to support her daughter and she still misses you. Write her a letter apologizing and send her some money. If you do what you can to repent and tell her the truth, you might still win your way back into her heart. Do anything other than apologizing and I will hunt you down myself."

This Unspeakable had wet himself.

"And YOU!" Harry screamed with rage, pointing at an Unspeakable on the second floor. The Unspeakable jumped, and was summoned through the window by his testicles before being dropped twelve feet to the floor. "I don't see why I shouldn't just kill you now, you sick, perverted asshole."

Harry gave him a kick to the ribs. "PAY ATTENTION!" Harry cleared his throat. "Jamie Jennings, born in Canterbury, August 10th, 1944. The child of an Englishwoman and a German "refugee" that was actually supposed to be an infiltrating terrorist. Your mother died in childbirth and you were raised by your racist asshole of a father. You inherited his views and became a true white supremacist, by becoming a believer in pureblood supremacy as well. You are responsible for the deaths of two hundred muggleborn and half-blood witches and wizards, despite being a muggleborn yourself. You have no mercy in you, so I find none in me. Goodbye, Jamie."

And Jamie started to scream, and smoke poured out of every orifice. The room gained a slight odor of bacon, before Harry sped up the process. And left nothing more than a pile of ash and a few rocks on the floor.

"That was Magnesium... did you put burning magnesium into his body?" One unjudged Unspeakable asked him.

"No... I merely transfigured the marrow of his bones."

"I... Good job sir." The Unspeakable replied.

Harry turned and fully focused on the Unspeakable.

"Bill Weasley... Looks like you cheated on a History of Magic test in fourth year... Oh, but you got pranked into doing it, because you got all of the answers wrong. Looks like you're in the clear... Just watch the tax cheating... You'll get caught one of these days."

Bill flushed behind his Unspeakable mask.

"I don't believe we have any other major problems... so is it OK if I pass out now?" Harry asked.

He didn't wait for an answer.


	5. Chapter 4

Malleability

Chapter Four

After having purged the corruption in the Department of Mysteries, the Department found itself without a Head, and the Assistant Head had taken an extended leave of absence, and so without a power structure, the Department had formed a true Democracy to solve many of their problems.

The first problem was: how would they get Harry to Hogwarts, without letting Dumbledore know of their involvement? Dumbledore assumed that Harry's Owling address was still Privet drive.

It was Harry who thought up the solution.

"Obliviate my relatives and tell everyone that was taken to America on an exchange program for six years. I return, live there for three weeks, get my Hogwarts letter and go. Easy as pie." Harry said lazily. Ever since he'd emerged from the Vault of Unfathomable Power, he'd been feeling increasingly antsy, and didn't want to do anything except train himself Since Harry had demolished his magical training room, and shattered the wards around it, there was no safe place to practice. So, Harry threw himself into physical training to kill that restless feeling deep inside of him The room had been jacked up to ten times Earth Gravity, and Harry spent hours in the room every day, hoping to exhaust himself. He even decided to do all his reading in the training room, just to give himself some extra benefit from it.

Without anyone to supervise, there were no more weekend experiments, and Harry just added the two extra days to his training schedule.

When he wasn't attempting to exhaust himself so that he felt less restless, or reading the contents of the Department's Library, he was delving into himself trying to figure out what powers he had gained. Other than his ability to instantly flame somewhere like a Phoenix and his natural Legillimens abilities, he hadn't figured out much. He suspected that he had some power over his appearance like a Metamorphmagus because he had accidentally used the ability a few times but was unable to duplicate it when trying from a non-emotional state. The gills on the side of his neck from the overexposure to Gillypotion a few years ago had expanded and were now fully functional. At least, they worked in the bathtub. Other than that, he hadn't noticed too many things different about him. He was almost disappointed. Still... with all those experiments on him, he knew there must be something he'd missed.

Weeks went by with Harry keeping the sake schedule as before... and the changes became even more noticeable. It seemed, that Harry's muscles had muscles growing on top of them. His body adapted, and sent him through a premature growth spurt so that his body could fit them all.

Harry ate like a dragon. Fights had broken out on the subject of who had to pay for Harry's lunch. ("It's cheaper to give Harry twenty Galleons than it is to take him to Lunch!" Bill complained) Harry had also been granted a sort of "Jr. Unspeakable" status. Pretty much, Harry got the mask and the uniform they all wore (as well as a promise to get him a real wand, instead of a stick.) and in return, Harry took a pretty powerful oath to keep him from mentioning anything that went on at the Department.

Finally, on the last day he was to spend at the Department of Mysteries, Harry was given "severance pay" and permission to shop for whatever he liked at Diagon Alley, but the pay must be used to pay for his wand first.

It was on that fateful day that Harry found himself inside Ollivander's wand shop, in his Unspeakable's robes.

"Hello, Mister Ollivander. I broke my last wand a few days ago, and am sorely in need of another." Harry said, his voice sounding a decade or two older than it was.

"Intriguing." Ollivander replied. "Was it a wand I've sold?"

"No. Another wand maker. I'm new around here, but I've heard that you're the best Wandmaker there is." Harry answered.

"How was it broken?" Ollivander asked, shuffling amongst his shelves of wands.

"There was a small crack I didn't notice. I put too much power into a spell, and BAM! It exploded in my hand." Harry pulled down his pair of gloves slightly to reveal the scars on his hand.

"Curious." Ollivander said. "Please hold out your wand arm."

Harry held out his right arm and allowed it to be measured.

Ollivander brought him no less than a hundred wands, none of which were good enough for him. There were three close calls, but they were too... weak to give that _right_ wand feeling.

"I wonder..." Ollivander said. He brought an especially valuable wand-box out from a random shelf and opened it. He handed it to Harry.

Harry gave it a wave, and felt something... but it wasn't quite right. It felt... weaker. Stronger than the others though.

"Mr. Ollivander... I fear I may need something a little more... powerful. And durable. I wear through wands rather quickly as it is.

"I have just the thing." Ollivander said. With a wave of his own wand, the blinds slid down, the door locked and the open sign flipped to "Gone to lunch. Will be back soon."

"It's downstairs. Follow me."

Harry vaulted the counter and followed the old Wand-maker down a flight of steps, and into the basement. There were thousands of glass bottles on the walls, each containing a powerful magical ingredient of some sort. There were also many woodworking tools and wood from dozens of different trees... all of which were down in this basement as well. There were unfinished wands galore as well as bottles of wand stain and polish, both open and closed. Ollivander slid aside a small cabinet. He then slid a few bricks out from the base of the wall. Then, he removed a dusty, aged wand box... only it was six feet long. He opened it, and touched the old ironwood staff.

"This... was my great-grandfather's creation. He was the only staff-maker to adapt a staff to hold four wands. They called him crazy, and he hid it here in this wall to hide his shame. I noticed, however, that exactly four wands responded to your touch today. I believe this was closer to what you were looking for?" Ollivander had finished sliding all four wands into slots and they had locked in place. "If the staff responds to you, the wands will meld together meld form the core of this staff. If not, I can just as easily remove them. Here. Give it a wave."

Harry accepted the staff and felt pure unfiltered power flowing through his bones. His hair stood on end briefly, and soon, both he and Ollivander were coughing as the small windstorm he'd created was stirring up a thousand years worth of dust.

They returned upstairs after Ollivander re-bricked the wall.

"The staff isn't strictly illegal, but the use of them is usually frowned upon, so only enlarge it when you truly need to. It will function much better in staff form, but will still be more powerful than most wands in the reduced size."

Harry thanked the man and strapped his newly purchased and shrunk staff to a holster on his wrist. The staff had taken up more than a quarter of his money. Harry decided he had two more purchases he needed to make. The next thing Harry bought was a wizard's trunk. While this one wasn't nearly as nice as an Auror's trunk, it still was magically expanded and had tree different compartments.

Harry swung by Gringotts to convert his remaining wizarding money into Pounds. Once outside of the Alley, Harry stowed all the blatantly magical things on him in the trunk and went into Muggle London (without the robe and mask on, of course.) Harry walked into the first clothing shop he reached and spent all he had on shoes and socks and other Muggle clothing. He wasn't specific on styles or anything, just as long as it fit. Harry hadn't worn Muggle clothes since he was four and would need something other than robes to wear, as he wasn't supposed to know magic existed.

He stepped into a side-street and flamed back to the Department. Harry checked with everyone to make sure all the Obliviations went off without a hitch.

"Wait!" a voice called.

Harry turned. It was Bill Weasley.

"I wanted to give you this." Bill said. He handed a book to Harry. He scanned the cover. "Pranks or Pleasure: the Official guide on how to tell if you're a Metamorphmagus." it said.

"Thank you!" Harry exclaimed. Harry clasped Bill's hand into a handshake, before turning it into an embrace.

"It was nice meeting you, Harry."

"Likewise." Harry replied. "Perhaps we'll meet again someday.

"Perhaps we will." Bill replied.

"Say hi to the Goblins for me!" Harry called as he flamed away. There Harry was, at Privet drive.

Harry knocked on the door and was allowed inside. His Aunt and Uncle greeted him blandly and said he could sleep in the smallest bedroom until it was time for school... and that was it. They pretended he didn't exist, which was perfect.

Harry collapsed into bed and began to read his new Metamorphmagus book. By the end of the day, he could lengthen and shorten his nose and alter his eye color. Without anyplace for him to channel his restless energy, Harry spent all his time in the smallest bedroom over the next week forcing himself to change. That seventh day, Harry succeeded in making himself look like an elderly woman. Harry figured that he'd gotten at least a sufficient amount of change, which was good as he was certain he'd spent too much time in the room and was getting restless.

The next morning, Harry woke up at five in the morning and went for a run. A long run. He returned to Privet Drive when he got hungry around eleven in the morning, and got up the next morning to do it again.

Somehow though, Harry felt that practicing his transformations and running simply wasn't enough for him. He wanted something else. Harry interpreted it as "social interaction" he needed, as he hadn't really had many friends before. In fact, the closest thing he had to a human friend was Bill Weasley.

Harry decided he would do something about that as well... though something deep inside him said that what he desired... was more than social interaction. But what?

Harry didn't know. He did, however have the feeling that he would be finding out very soon.

A/n: Meh. Not my longest chapter, but seeing as I updated two stories yesterday, I don't feel too guilty. Hope you liked it. If not, feel free to Flame me.

-Neopyro


	6. Chapter 5

Malleability

Chapter Five

Harry writhed in agony on his bed at Privet Drive. Something was happening to him that he didn't understand. It was like he was being possessed. Like there was some demon inside him trying to gain control. He struggled vainly to try and remember the Occulmency exercises that he read about so long ago.

"What the hell did they do to me!" Harry demanded of the air, which of course did not respond.

He felt the fire inside him start to consume him... whatever it was, it was winning.

Like a message in a bottle, his memories of the Occulmency book he'd read came to him. He focused his newfound magical power and forced it to shield his mind, and isolate this... madness, or whatever it was. Harry bent his magic to his will, and commanded it to obey.

His internal madness fought back with equal ferocity. The conflict seemed like it would tear his mind apart. He didn't find out if he'd won or not because he passed out.

The heat and desire he'd felt in him since the first day he'd been back had been steadily growing. It had weakened over the last two days, and Harry had suspected that that was the end of it. He figured that if it got too bad he could flame over to the Department of Mysteries and have it looked at. Running and exercising seemed to cause it to weaken as well, so he'd spent as much time running as he possibly could.

He didn't understand what it was, but when he awoke the next morning and didn't feel any sign of it inside his mind, he figured that he had won.

He didn't notice that his shoes in the corner were moist from morning dew...

Every morning he exercised as much as possible, and every night he reinforced his Occulmency shields. Days went by and Harry assumed that he remembered everything he'd done. It wasn't until his mental check-up with the Department (three days before he was supposed to receive his Hogwarts letter) that he found out just how wrong he was.

After his Aunt and Uncle went to sleep, Harry Phoenix-flamed into the Department of Mysteries. Specifically, the room he used to sleep in. Bill Weasley was waiting for him.

"Good evening, Harry." Bill greeted. "Ready for the check-up?"

"As ready as ever... A quick question though. Do you know of anything that was done to me that would involve me getting a sort of... extra personality? I had an issue with something inside me attempting to take control of my body from me. I suppressed it with my Occulmency shields and I think I killed it as I haven't had a problem since."

"Well, why don't you lower your shields slowly and I'll take a look around for anything. I am a Cursebreaker after all and am quite good at Legillimency. I should be able to help you with anything I see that is out of place." Bill offered.

Harry trusted Bill and lowered his shields slowly, to make sure there wasn't some crazy thing inside his mind that might attempt to attack him again. Harry's shield came down all the way and nothing happened.

"Ready?" Bill asked, looking Harry in the eyes. Harry nodded softly, and flinched as he felt the Legillimency probe enter his mind. He deliberately avoided the memories section of Harry's mind and instead looked on his mind as a whole.

Bill didn't speak while he probed. He needed full concentration to use Legillimancy still. It seemed like a year had passed before Bill removed the probe from his mind.

"Have you been casting Memory charms on yourself?" Bill asked.

"Of course not. Why?" Harry asked.

"Because there are almost a dozen memory charms on you right now, and all of them have your magical signature on them. It's a whole lot easier for the caster of the spell to remove the charm than it is for someone else to break it. I could show you where they are in your mind so you can examine them yourself."

Harry already felt scared. What had that...thing done while it had used his body?

"I recommend removing all the charms simultaneously, that way you can simply lay down and enjoy a night's worth of memories, in a state similar to sleep, instead of waking up after each one finishes."

"You're the expert." Harry replied cheekily.

Bill smiled. "Lean back, Harry." Harry leaned back into the bed and felt bill place his hands on his forehead.

Bill lead him on a tour of his mind, and color coded all the memory charms he'd cast on himself as black so Harry could see them.

"Other than that, you seem to be in perfect health, Harry. I'll let you get to work on those. I'll be in the other room if you need anything." Bill said, walking off.

Harry examined the ten black dots sitting close to each other inside his brain. The closer you got to them, the more they looked like tiny black knots. Without even having think about it, the knots unraveled simultaneously, and all evidence of the spells were gone. His head throbbed painfully ans the memories came rushing back.

------------------------------Flashback------------------------------------

The alarm clock on his desk read 11:30pm. The Dursleys had all just headed to bed. (Harry recalled from the evening that he had just gone to bed as well... or so he thought) Harry rose from the bed and pulled on some clothes. The clothes weren't selected for any particular purpose that he could notice... just that they were clothes. Harry put on a pair of sneakers and left the house. Once outside, it shifted shape into that of a stunningly handsome twenty year old man. His clothes changed magically too, into something that fit his muscular body a bit better. Once satisfied, he Phoenix-flamed somewhere.

He appeared in an abandoned alley, and stepped out, into the center of town. But not a town that Harry had ever seen before. In fact, it was a city. Assuming that the clock on the bank sign up ahead was accurate, his body double had traveled five timezones to the west. The clock said 6:45pm. He was in America, on the east coast somewhere.

The thing in control of Harry's body walked down the busy city roadway for a few blocks before coming to a set of stairs that lead to a "Subway" (according to the sign.) Judging by the sounds he was hearing, he assumed it was the American version of the Underground. But Harry's body double didn't want a ticket. He walked into the Muggle Men's room (vaulting the massive "Do Not Enter" sign to do it.)

He walked up to a Urinal and pulled the handle, pushed it again, flicked it upwards and pulled it once more. The Urinal and wall slid aside to reveal one of the many thousands of entrances to the American Wizard's shopping center and main thoroughfare: Testittlertown Thoroughfare.

America, from what Harry knew was the richest Wizarding nation in the world. By not concerning themselves with Muggle affairs, and not getting involved in any magical wars, American Wizards got rich. With so many powerful positions one could ascend to in the American Magical Government, and all the power that the corporations wielded, there hadn't been a dark lord since Wizardkind got themselves situated in America. Whenever a promising young wizard or witch came around with a lot of power and the desire to use it, they became Minister of the American Magical Government, not a threat to the nation. But as long as the people continued to rake in the money, nobody cared who was in power or what they did.

America got rich by winning the production market. A full sixty-five percent of the Wizarding World's companies were American, but instead of competing with themselves, American Corporations squeezed wealth out of other countries, exporting their higher quality, cheaply priced goods to nations around the world and driving out the competition... and buying them up when they went bankrupt. Now, Americans were so rich, that the average Middle-Class wizard in America was richer than Lucius Malfoy.

Testittlertown Thoroughfare Went from Testittlertown, Maine (an all Wizarding settlement four times the size of Hogsmeade.)To Los Angeles. It met the Seattle to Miami road in St Louis. There were a half-dozen other roads that connected major population centers to Testittlertown Thoroughfare (and all the roads were alliterations) and all of them were full of wizards, for America had the Highest wizard population in the world. Breeding with Muggles was common practice and now three quarters of the magical population had Muggle blood in them.

But Harry was sure that the thing that stole his body wasn't here for the history. It had a plan.

It walked into a seemingly random store that was empty except the single clerk on duty. Everyone was out watching the Quodpod game at the stadium down the street and she was stuck working.

The clerk was cute. Probably twenty-two or so, brown hair, blue eyes, glasses and a small amount of freckles sat upon her cream-colored face. A squib actually, but squibs could still get jobs working in Retail in America.

"May I help you?" She asked politely, looking up from her cheesy romance novel.

"I was just looking for some uhh... preventative measures. See, I'm a Squib and can't cast contraceptive charms..." The Harry body-thief thing said, managing to sound nervous.

"Oh! I'm a Squib too." The clerk squeaked excitedly. "Here, I'll show you where they are." As she worked in a Pharmacy, she had seen it all, and wasn't embarrassed in the slightest to show a very handsome man the birth-control section.

The Harry-thing reached out and grabbed a box of preventatives labeled "Extra-large." The clerk raised a single eyebrow at him.

"Really?" she asked. "Are you sure you're not buying something a few sizes bigger just to impress me?"

"If you've got it, flaunt it." The Harry-thing replied. Both of them laughed.

"So are you getting those for someone special?" The clerk asked conversationally, trying not to sound hopeful. She hadn't had a date in well over six months and let's face it, cheesy romance novels won't sustain you forever.

"Nope. It's just a sort of luck thing. Maybe if I actually have them around I'll get a chance to use them." The Harry-thing said.

The clerk smirked. Maybe she had a chance after all. She decided to take a chance. "So, being a Squib, are you sure you know what to do with that generous wand of yours?" She asked.

"Would you like to find out?" The Harry-thing replied.

The next thing he knew, the clerk had locked the door and killed the lights. They found themselves in the back room and the clerk took a small contraceptive pill... and Harry managed to repress the rest of the memory. He was ten years old. Almost eleven. He may look a little more grown up than he should, but that didn't mean he was ready to see... That stuff.

His other nine memories involved the Harry-thing going to other places to perform the same act, with a different disguise to a different person or sometimes several people at the same time or in the same night. Harry made sure to cement it in his mind that it was the Harry-Thing doing all that. Not him.

The Harry thing had traveled to the far corners of the world, to find some random young, wealthy and beautiful woman to...do things with. This was just great.

"Bill." Harry called. When he heard no response, Harry called louder. "BILL!"

"Yes, Harry?" Bill asked, coming into the room.

"Let the department know I'm calling a meeting. All surviving members must attend, no matter what their project. It is mandatory." Harry said with a low growl. He was going to find some way to keep his body from abusing its powers and roaming the night looking for loose women. At least until he was older.


	7. Chapter 6

A/n: No excuses will forgive the lateness of my update. I humbly ask for your forgiveness. Also: the rating is now increased to M. The rest of the story shouldn't be as bad as this chapter, but let's not take chances.

Malleability

Chapter Six

The Department of Mysteries was the most heavily fortified building in all of England; possibly all of Europe. The Department was attached to the ministry by a long corridor that led into a natural iron deposit that completely enveloped the Department's outer walls. The deposit was checked daily for gaps, holes and imperfections. The largest hole was currently the size of a US half dollar (and was scheduled to be repaired within the week). The Outer walls were made of stone and steel, using the most durable mixes of magical and Muggle technology they could find. There was a fifteen foot gap between the outer walls and the inner walls that served as a buffer. Flame retardant, non-conductive gel that as tough as rubber but replicated itself when destroyed and would mend itself instantly when cut (sort of like what happens when you drag a spoon through soup.) The gel would conform to the shape of the outer and inner walls. The inner walls had the same build as the outer walls except were more modern as they were easier to update. In other words the Department could contain the blast of several nuclear weapons detonated simultaneously inside. While this description is almost boring by itself, it does serve a purpose.

It shows you just how sturdy the building is…. And how much power would be required in damaging it.

Currently, the building was shaking. Unspeakables were walking about like boat passengers during a hurricane. Sticking charms were applied to everything on a shelf (it took half the Unspeakable force to do the hall of prophecy.) and many of the wizarding world's elite scientists were scared.

The reason? There was an isolated earthquake going on inside the building measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale. The cause? Accidental magic. Someone was extremely angry, and that someone had enough magical power to back up the emotion. Harry Potter.

With fifteen minutes until the meeting Harry called, the Earthquake stopped. The Department went un-naturally quiet, and the temperature dropped about twenty degrees. Celsius. Every Unspeakable in the Department stopped what they were doing and went to the boardroom to wait.

At precisely 11:59:59, Harry Potter walked in, and looked at the sorry state of the witches and Wizards before him. It was impossible to discern which ones were trembling from the cold, and which were trembling out of fear. Some, Harry figured, were trembling for both.

With the exception of the chattering teeth of scared, cold Unspeakables the room was silent.

"Would anyone care to enlighten me as to why I have suddenly developed an alternate personality hell-bent on sneaking out and having sex as often as it can?" The eleven-year-old wizarding prodigy asked.

The issue might have been funny if most of the people in the room hadn't feared for their lives. After a few seconds wait, a single hand rose out of the air.

"Sir, very few of us know anything about what our department head did to you. Any of us who did anything will doubtless be memory charmed and wouldn't know if they helped or not."

"What do you know?" Harry demanded.

"Nothing, sir. But perhaps you could unravel the memory charms of those who might know something?"

"Actually, I believe I may be assistance." Another Unspeakable announced. His robe bore a massive black hourglass on it. "I am the designated spotter for the department of Mysteries. My job is to watch over experiments and should something go terribly wrong, or should we be forced to do something terrible, I would travel back in time, report the findings to the scientist before the experiment ever happened and insist they try something else and explain why."

"Go on."

"I am the only Spotter for the Department of Mysteries, and have been for the last eight years. All experiments require a spotter, and thus, I would have been there for every experiment ever performed on you. However, I am bound by some of the most powerful confidentiality charms there are."

"So, in other words you know everything I need to know but cannot tell me?" Harry inquired.

"Correct. But, I believe I can show you. I will put all the applicable memories into a Pensieve. Then I will confound the Pensieve into believing that you are me and can view the memories freely."

"Make it so. You are dismissed." Harry ordered.

"Thank you sir." The Unspeakable said, scurrying out the door as fast as possible.

"The rest of you will meet with me again after I have viewed the memories to interpret the effects of the experiments. Knowing the things I was put through won't be enough. I need to know what those things will mean for me. I will call another meeting wen the time is right. Go. Now." Harry ordered.

Every Unspeakable save one left the room as quickly as possible. Bill Weasley remained.

"How'd I do?" Harry asked, slumping into his chair.

"Quite well actually." Bill replied. "I was scared and I wasn't even implicated in your charges. The earthquake was amazing, and that coldness… truly inspired."

"Suck-up." Harry said. But he was smiling.

"I suppose so." Bill replied. "Good luck with the Pensieve. I need some rest. I worked the night shift last night and was just getting off when this meeting happened."

"Ah. Sleep well."

"I will."

A few hours later

The Spotter made his way to Harry's room and knocked lightly.

"Come in." Harry called.

"Thanks, but I'd prefer to stay out here. I know what they did to your room. You don't yet. While you could spend an indefinite amount of time in your room, I could not. My magical core is barely a quarter of the size of yours, making your room a bit… overpowering for me."

"I understand." Harry agreed, accepting the Pensieve.

"You'd better take this too." The Spotter added, handing Harry a time turner.

"Thanks." Harry said. The Spotter left and Harry submerged himself into the memories.

A large portion of the memories were boring. Simple tests and examinations mostly. Others he watched things get applied to his skin or pumped into his veins but he couldn't recognize what. Several treatments were repeated hundreds of times with slight changes to see the end results.

He watched himself drink a Gillyweed potion, and then a dehydration spell was cast upon him… and then he was bathed in a tub of phoenix tears. His body ingested the tears as if they were water for the next two days, because they just left him there in the tub.

He watched every piece of his skin get scraped off his body, and the raw area underneath get painted with a bright green paste.

He watched a pint of blood get removed from his body, and get replaced by another kind of blood. This one happened a lot, each time with a new kind of blood.

They were all things to do with "improving him" but sometimes there were times where the improvements were tested… these were terrible, for he got to watch himself get hit by powerful spells until he died… many many times. All in the name of making him better though… some people were truly twisted and his "doctor" was one of them.

But there was one weekend that was worse than all of the others.

He was placed on the Imperius curse and taken to the training room to completely use all the magic in his magical core. Again, he started gasping and draining magic from the air. The former Department head was chanting something though. A rune was drawn on the ground where Harry lay, and it started to glow. A portal opened and the room was suddenly unbearably hot. The other end of the portal showed scenes of unspeakable torment: whips, chains, fire and brimstone with the screams of the damned filling the air. It was hell. Harry was still writhing, gasping for magic on the table where he'd been placed. The Scientist cast a wandless spell in Harry's direction and his writhing stopped. Harry was frozen, and no longer gasping for magic.

"I call upon the services of a Succubus! As payment, I offer a single unicorn foal to be used as you see fit." The scientist called.

"Your offer is accepted mortal. The Succubus will be yours for twenty-four hours time to do with as you see fit." The scientist levitated a medium sized wooden crate through the portal, a newborn unicorn still kicking and screaming inside.

Through the portal walked a woman… If you could call it that. She was completely unclad, save for scales decorating a few parts of her body and a necklace made from the bones of the damned. She had long claws, razor sharp teeth, wings that looked as if they belonged on a small dragon and a whiplike tail with a pointy, venomous barb at the end.

The Succubus looked between the two males in the room. "To whom do I give my services?" She asked. Her voice hissed like water on hot steel.

"The child. You will find him ready and willing." The unspeakable doctor answered.

"It will be as you ask." The succubus replied and walked up to Harry's frozen form.

"I will unfreeze him as soon as you mount him." He said, but the Succubus did not response. She drew one of her longest claws down the seam of Harry's jeans and up the other side. The denim ripped and even drew a faint line of blood underneath. She repeated the act until Harry was just as unclad as she was. She raised herself over top of him, and gave the scientist an almost imperceptible nod. Harry unfroze just as she lowered herself onto him… and she screamed. Harry resumed his gasping for magic and grabbed both of the Succubus's arms with a death grip. As demons are magical creatures, they cease to live without magic. She flailed but cold not escape Harry's grasp. She died then, still on top of him, and the Scientist in the background only grinned.

Harry jolted himself out of the Pensieve and immediately threw up all over the floor. The truth hit him like a battering ram. Harry had siphoned all the magic out of a… sex demon. In fact… that is what the Harry-thing was.

Harry showered himself four times in hopes of getting rid of the unclean feeling that filled his very being. He even hit himself with a souped-up pot-scrubbing hex. It was no use. He cleaned up his own vomit and hopped into bed. Just as he was about to fall asleep, a paper airplane flew through the hallway and into his room. He'd been contacted using the ministry mail system. Harry examined the wax seal. In large letters it read: "From the desk of the Director of the Department of Mysteries"


	8. Chapter 7

Malleability

Chapter Seven

Harry felt his hands shaking with anger. He held back his magical power, but only just. He opened the envelope and pulled out the sheet of parchment held inside it. Scratchy handwriting dotted the page all the way down. It was the manic, delusional sort of handwriting you'd expect a serial killer to have. Harry briefly practiced his Occulmency, and read.

_Dear Son_

_Can I call you son? I don't suppose it matters since I'll be long dead before you reply to this. So… Son. I've always considered myself a bit of a father to you_,_ despite our complete lack of biological relation. You were my greatest success and my greatest failure. But you were still mine._

_I'm sure you've already found your way into my vacant Head of Department slot and found out all of the great things I've done for you over the years. You already have the raw magical power of ten wizards of your choice (except a chosen few, but you will in time, my son) and the special abilities of a thousand. How many wizards can travel by fire like a phoenix? How many wizards have skin that grants them a natural resistance to hostile spells but doesn't fight beneficial ones?_

_How many have slept with a demon and lived to tell the tale?_

_The first day you arrived, I was already fascinated with you. Few wizards start their lives with as many gifts as you did. Even if I had not meddled in your affairs, you would have grown to be more powerful than the esteemed Albus Dumbledore. A natural Parselmouth, with metamorphmagus and animagus abilities… Such a rarity. Specimens such as you are not found on trees after all._

_But care not for your possible pasts. You are what I made you. And more. You are the chosen one. Not the one to save the world from Voldemort. That "accomplishment" will be laughable compared to the things your very existence will bring about. _

_Because of you, I have proved my most objectionable hypothesis to be true. One's lifespan is determined predominantly by their magical power and not by the purity of their blood._

_It is well known that Muggles don't live as long as witches and wizards do. Squibs live slightly longer than Muggles, but not noticeably so. Then why is it Albus Dumbledore is one hundred and fifty while most wizards die off in their early hundreds?_

_The answer is magic. Albus Dumbledore will live to be approximately a hundred and sixty five. Voldemort (who is very much alive and well) will live into his early two hundreds._

_You, however… you will live so very much longer than all of them. And why, you ask? It is so very simple. Normal Witches and Wizards stop gaining magical power in their mid twenties (In Albus's case, early thirties). You won't. I found something inside you and changed it all. Your magical power will never stop growing._

_In other words, the day you die will be the day where you are the strongest you have ever been._

_Now, tie this in with my hypothesis that magical power determines your lifespan…_

_Now you're catching on. I did the math for you. Assuming your magical power grows at half the rate it has while it was here (you won't be training your ENTIRE life, will you?) your age will catch up to your magical power in about fifteen millennia give or take a dozen centuries. Now, why is it that I theorize you will save the magical world, you ask?_

_Another simple thing. The goddess we have imprisoned here in the department is Crasheega, the goddess of magic. She is your great-great-great-great-great-great- great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother. Mine too, actually. All children with magical power descend from her. Wizards in the old days were all-powerful magical beings. Rome really was built in a day by the great mages Romulus and Remus. They summoned stone from the very depths of the earth and shaped it to their will. That afternoon, they summoned people from the far corners of the world to live in their new city._

_The point is, magical power has faded because it was unsafe to let our goddess roam the earth freely. You will refresh the gene pool through your irresistible desire to breed._

_Let's do a little bit of math here. Say you allow yourself out to reproduce once per week._

_Fifty two weeks in a year… times fifteen thousand years…By the end of your life, you will have approximately seven hundred and eighty thousand children, not including twins and triplets (which I specifically made sure that you would be more likely to have)._

_You alone will repopulate the wizarding world with competent children. _

_Now, I'm sure you are still doubting my honesty, so I will let you know about another segment of my research. _

_I realized that senility and general bodily deterioration will set in at some time or another, and so I made sure it would not._

_I altered your water intake the entire time you were here. I started it with a single phoenix tear per 8 oz. glass of water. By the time of my demise, you would drink and bathe in nothing except a 25 phoenix tear solution. Your body has altered itself to accompany the phoenix tears, and has even become dependant upon them. By killing a phoenix and installing its tear ducts inside you, your body now produces phoenix tears, completely eliminating the ageing process._

_Dragon brains do not decompose, even if exposed to the elements for centuries due to a membrane around their brain. You have one now too._

_Now, I am not completely without mercy. To accommodate your excess memories, and to allow you to live amongst the humans without arousing as much suspicion I have left you two presents. Check your closet, below your cloak._

Harry opened the closet and saw a large, plain silver bracelet and a stone washbasin, large enough to bathe a toddler. He returned to the letter for further explanation.

_The washbasin is the world's largest pensieve. It took five of my apprentices a year of careful study to make it. It is for when your memories get too much to bear and you are fearing brain damage. _

_The bracelet goes on your upper arm, just below your shoulder. It will suppress your magical power to about a quarter of its current capacity. All of your special abilities will still be within reach but your spellcasting will be dampened sufficiently so that you are a mere prodigy in the eyes of those at Hogwarts._

_Contained inside the pensieve is all of my research concerning the creation of your armband so that you could create another armband, so that you could live a normal life if you prefer. To retain your usual appearance of a mere prodigy, you might consider the second armband around your graduation from Hogwarts._

_The pensieve also contains the memories of a ten year old at an American academy for gifted students. The memories are duplicated, not stolen and the child was not harmed. If you want your story of attending school in America to hold up, you'd better be able to back it up._

_That is all the advice I can offer you, my son. Go forth, and multiply. You alone shall inherit the earth._

_-Father_

_PS: The anger you are feeling right now may be a bit overbearing. Your gills should be functional about now, so you might want to go for a swim with your friends in the Hogwarts lake. _

_PPS: The bracelet does NOT hold back your demonic side, and will not keep it at bay no matter how many bracelets you have on. Nice try. I won't let you get out of your duty that easily._

Harry crumpled the letter up into a tight little ball, and growled in frustration. His mind shut down and his demon side took over.

The Harry Thing took his "father's" advice and went for a swim in the Hogwarts lake. Not for swimming, of course. He found that his metamorphmagus abilities easily let him take on the form of a stunning merman, and he was quite popular with several of the Mermaids. All night long.

The morning came, and Harry said his goodbyes to the entire department staff. His goodbye to Bill took a bit longer, as he'd truly started growing attached to the man. He packed away his things and returned to Privet drive, this time for real. He scanned the memories the Department of Mysteries director had left him for all the pertinent details of "his life" in America.

The Dursley's memory charms told them that Harry had scored a free scholarship to a school in America for four years that gave him free room, board, tuition and a plane flight. (The charms had been re-added to accommodate his false start about how he'd only been there a few days ago.) He'd only been returned home because his tuition had expired and he didn't want to impose on the Dursley's for any of their hard earned money. He even explained that he'd used his own money to get a cab back to their house.

So the charm was a little tainted to match their delusional mindset. Who cares?

Harry put on a good show for the Dursleys and they tolerated his presence because of it. Dudley barely remembered him and as such didn't whine about him, or even care about him one way or another. Although, it might have been the muscles that he'd picked up "over there in America" that kept his cousin in line.

One day, at breakfast, the mail arrived.

"Get the mail, Dudley dear." Aunt Petunia called.

"I'm still eating. Harry, get the mail, would you?" Dudley answered.

Harry got up from the table and picked up the mail. Harry thumbed through letters. Phone bill, electric bill, postcard from Marge… Hogwarts Letter.

Harry opened it. It was exactly as he suspected it would be. He decided to play it exactly as the Dursleys would want to hear it.

"Oh, look." Harry said as he returned to the kitchen. "I've been accepted into another school. Says they'll pay for tuition, room, board, train ticket… oh wow, they'll even pay for my school outfit and a trip to the station."

"That's nice." Petunia replied. "It means I don't have to go out and buy that dye I needed for your stonewall uniform."

"Saving money is good. Could be worse. What is this place?" Vernon inquired.

"I dunno." Harry responded dismissively. "Some boarding school up in Scotland. It has some kind of dreadful name. I'd rather go to Stonewall, but I'd rather save you guys money. It doesn't grow on trees after all."

And that was all the convincing it took. He gathered his things from his staff to his clothes and bought the last of his school things. He spent the night at the Leaky Cauldron and awoke early the next morning. He made a brief stop at Gringotts for a cash withdrawal. He had been paid as if he'd been a full employee of the Department of Mysteries for the last six years and had a tidy sum socked away in a Gringotts account for that reason. He was informed while he was there that he had another account at the bank but as it wasn't a priority and he already had enough money on him, he decided to just let it gain interest until such a time came that he needed more money. He could always use it to help finance his kid's lives. He snorted at that. Three quarters of a million child support payments every month. He'd have to rob a casino a week to pay for that.

Harry took the Underground to King's Cross station (not for transportation reasons. Simply to kill time because he was early.) He eyed the ticket in his hand. "Platform 9 and ¾" it read. He noticed a slight distortion in the wall between platforms nine and ten.

He watched as a small crowd of red haired people walked stealthily through the barrier. He smiled and followed in their wake.

It was time to go to Hogwarts.


	9. Chapter 8

A/n: I couldn't get Hagrid's accent right, so I turned it into regular speech. I hope you don't mind… You can flame me for it though.

Malleability

Chapter Eight

Harry leaned his trunk against the wall and sat on it. The platform was absolutely bustling with activity. Parents saying their goodbyes to children. Children greeting their friends. Luggage being loaded. All the usual chaotic things one would expect to see on a train platform.

But something occurred to him as he sat there on his trunk. The youngest children getting on the train… the ones the same age as he was looked so much smaller. He was easily a foot taller than the largest first year. He sighed. 'I should look like them… not like this.' He thought.

Then it occurred to him. 'Duh! I'm a metamorphmagus!' he thought, resisting the urge to slap himself in the forehead. He raised his wand (or rather his shrunken staff) and cast a weak notice-me-not charm on himself.

He wrinkled his nose and concentrated on looking like he had a few years earlier (before he'd traveled with Unspeakables so much using a time turner). He felt a brief pain in his bones as he shrank about thirteen inches. He kept his muscle tone though. He liked his physical strength and the appearance it gave him.

He magically adjusted his clothes to fit his size and removed the notice-me-not charm. He plastered a childish smile on his face and boarded the train. He briefly considered levitating his trunk but decided against it. He was still getting used to the feel of his magic while wearing his power suppression bracelet. It was like there was a dam inside him, holding an important part of himself back.

He found his way to the first empty compartment and lifted his trunk onto the rack. He hadn't been sitting there long when another boy, around his age opened the door.

"Do you mind if I join you?" The red headed boy asked. Freckles practically covered his pale face. "Everywhere else is full."

"Feel free." Harry replied.

"Thanks." The boy replied, hoisting his trunk onto the rack. "I'm Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley."

"Harry Potter." He responded. The boy looked like he'd been by a jumper cable hex. (Invented by a half-blood mechanic about a decade ago. He'd gotten tired of hooking up batteries to fix his car and invented a spell to do it himself. Pretty wicked in combat, actually).

"Is it really you? Do you have the...?" Ron asked.

"The what?" Harry inquired.

"Scar." The Ron answered in a wistful voice.

Harry rolled his eyes and lifted his bangs for Ron to stare at his forehead.

"Not really something I like to think about." Harry said. "My parents died that night."

"Yeah…" Ron said, looking like he was sorry he'd asked.

Conversation reached a lull. Ron broke the silence. "Do you know any magic?" he asked.

"A little." Harry responded. "I was more interested in special abilities than looking at spells. Have you looked abilities up?"

"Not really, no. One of my uncles an ummm… what's it called when you can change into an animal?" he asked.

"An Animagus. No, I can't do that one. I'm a bit of a metamorphmagus though."

"A what?" Ron asked.

"It's easier to show you." Harry scrunched up his face and let his ears grow out until they were roughly the size of an elephant's.

"Wicked!" Ron exclaimed.

Harry was about to shrink the ears back when the compartment door opened.

"Have any of you-" a brown haired witch started. "Were you trying to do magic?" she asked.

"Sort of." Harry replied, shrinking his ears. "What were you asking?"

"Oh. A toad." The witch said, looking a bit perplexed. "A boy named Neville's lost one."

Harry sighed. "Can nobody on this train do a proper summoning charm?" he asked rhetorically. Just to keep up the façade that he was only a little gifted, he looked like he was straining himself with the spell, and made it so the toad was summoned to him slowly. "_Accio Toad!_ He called. About fifteen seconds later, Trevor the toad floated slowly down the hall to him.

"There you go." Harry said, handing the girl the toad as if she'd just won a carnival prize. "I need to sit down now." Harry took a seat across from Ron.

The brown haired girl strode out of the compartment without even as much as a goodbye and they were alone again.

Harry was about to restart conversation with Ron when an owl flew up and started pecking at the train window. Harry let it in. The regal looking brown owl landed beside him and extended its foot for Harry to take the envelope. It was from Gringotts. He opened it.

"_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_I am responding to an inquiry you made on the 31st of August concerning the existence of your second account."_

'That's odd. ' Harry thought. 'I didn't actually make an inquiry, I just mentioned that I hadn't known of the account's existence… The goblin must not have understood me. Maybe I should practice my gobbledegook more.'

"_As such, I have taken an inventory of your vault and remotely destroyed the alternate key to your account. The current monetary value of all contents contained in your two vaults (which have since been combined) is 13,785,420 galleons. Your new key is enclosed inside this envelope. Should you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to send them to me._

_Financially yours,_

_Shattertooth, Head Vault Inventory Specialist"_

Harry pocketed the key.

"What was that about?" Ron asked.

"Gringotts stuff." Harry replied. "Apparently my parents had some money when they died and left it to me."

Ron again looked sorry he asked. Harry tapped his wand and a tiny flame popped out of the end (the spell was commonly known as the cigarette lighter charm) and he burned the letter and envelope.

"I think I see the castle up ahead." Ron said, looking out the window.

"Yeah." Harry agreed. "We should get changed."

The two of them changed into their Hogwarts robes, and gathered their trunks. The train came to a stop and the boys followed the rest of the students out of the train.

"First Years! First Years, this way!" A giant of a man called, his voice carrying over the crowd. Harry made his way over to him. He lost sight of Ron in the crowd but found his way

Harry joined the other first years crowded around the giant and watched Ron and the bossy, brown haired witch make her way out of the crowd.

"Four to a boat, please! Leave your bags here, they'll be taken up to the castle shortly." The Giant boomed.

Harry took a seat in the first empty boat. He was quickly joined by two girls of Indian decent and a blonde girl. The three girls kept casting odd looks and giggling. He turned and had brief eye contact with the blonde. She quickly looked down, blushing. He rolled his eyes at them.

Ron was in a boat with the bossy brunette from the train, a burly girl who looked like she needed to shave and a boy with a toad whom he assumed was Neville. He gestured to him for some kind of help. Harry mouthed the words "You'll live." To him and turned away, abandoning Ron to his fate.

"And, we're off!" The giant said as the boats started gliding across the lake. Harry looked down at the water as they passed. He wondered idly if there were rules at the school that would keep him from visiting the Merfolk during the school year.

"Ummmmm…" Said one of the Indian girls, attempting to get his attention. She must have been the bravest of the three of them because the other two were only looking away and giggling. "We were wondering…"

Harry turned. "You were wondering what?" Harry asked. Somehow, he kept sarcasm out of his voice.

"Well, we heard that you are a Metamorphmagus." The Indian girl said, her confidence rising a bit as she continued to speak.

"I am." Harry replied. "Why?"

"Well we were wondering if ummm… you could ummm… extend your ummmm…" she said hopefully.

"My what?" Harry asked, playing dumb. "My eyelashes? My nose? My chin?" Harry extended all three of the things he mentioned in turn before returning them to normal.

"No, no, no." The Indian girl responded. "Your _thing._"

"My fingers?" Harry inquired, his index finger extending to be about a foot long and three inches around. "My tongue?" His tongue extended to be roughly the same length as his enlarged finger. He did some experimental flicking motions in the air with his tongue, like a snake… only not.

"That would work!" The blonde piped in as Harry transformed back. The three girls lapsed into giggles again. Harry joined them, but with regular laughter instead of giggles.

"Seriously though." One of the Indian girls interjected between giggles. "You didn't answer our question."

"What can I say?" Harry smirked. "Use your imagination."

Just as the girl's mouth had changed into a perfect 'O' of shock, the boat touched ground on the opposite shore. Harry stepped off, and waited for the giant to lead the way.

Harry followed the Giant up the stairs to a large wooden door. A stern faced witch in green robes awaited them.

"I'll take them from here, Hagrid." She said. Hagrid nodded and made his way down the hall. "I am Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonnagall. I am also the Head of Gryffindor House and the Transfiguration Professor. There are four houses here at Hogwarts. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. You will be sorted into one of these four houses ..."

Harry zoned out for a moment as she explained everything from the point system on down to the basic rules. He'd learned all from Bill awhile ago and there wasn't anything new for him to learn.

"…the Ceremony will begin shortly." She finished, walking through the door behind her. "I will call you when it is time."

They all stood there awkwardly in the hall waiting for her to return.

"So it's true then!" a blonde boy exclaimed from the middle of the group. "Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts."

Whispers of awe greeted his words. It gave Harry time to think up a suitably biting comeback. Legillimency helped, as it allowed Harry to subtly pick up on the blonde boy's greatest fears.

"It is true." Harry said. "But who cares about that. What must be truly celebrated is the arrival of the son of the Great Lucius Malfoy! Old, what's-his face. Will he ever exceed his father's fame and notoriety? Or will his father keep him in line, only giving him power one tidbit at a time? So which is it, young Malfoy, are you your father's pet, or are you his future replacement?" Draco looked absolutely horrified as his fears of having no personality or power that wasn't handfed to him by his father were announced before the entire crowd of first years. And they laughed. Not because they understood all the cracks being made but because they knew it was supposed to be funny.

Draco had almost recovered enough to retort when the door opened in front of them.

"It is time." McGonnagall said simply, and they followed her into the hall.

The students all made their comments of awe as they were lined up before a grubby looking hat on a stool. Slowly, the hall quieted down and the hat began to sing an obnoxious, rhyming song about the four houses and the school itself. Harry tuned it out.

One by one, students were called up to the hat. He remembered names, and watched as people he'd seen during the train ride and in the hall were shuffled into their various houses. Draco Malfoy went to Slytherin. The blonde from the boat (Lavender) and one of the Indian girls (Parvati) went to Gryffindor. The other Indian Girl went to Ravenclaw.

The names counted down one by one until "Potter, Harry" was called. The whispers started up again as Harry took a seat on the stool. The hat was placed gently upon his head, and it spoke into his brain.

"An Occulmens… Very impressive. Kindly lower your shields, please. I am incapable of sharing your thoughts or memories with anyone else. All your secrets are safe." The hat said.

Harry reluctantly lowered them and the hat shuffled through his brain like playing cards.

"Brave, loyal, ambitious and intelligent. Very powerful too. You could do well in any of the houses… but the best choice for you would be SLYTHERIN!"

The last word was yelled aloud and the hat was lifted from his head.

The hall sat in stunned silence. 1…2…3 seconds went by and then came the first clapping, coming from the headmaster himself. Other clapping joined in but nowhere near as loud as any of the other students. Harry wandered over to the Slytherin table and took a seat.

He smirked, and waited for the last of the students to finish sorting.

'Slytherin, huh?' he thought. 'I wouldn't have bet on that for anything…'

A/n: I had a major dilemma when it came to picking which house Harry went to. There were major pros and cons to each of them which I will explain here so you understand my decision.

Gryffindor: I almost immediately ruled out Gryffindor for several reasons. #1 I would run the risk of writing the stories the same way, or almost the same way JK Rowling did, which seems like a major cop out after all the work I went through to make this different. #2 With the addition to a demon into his body, Harry won't be able to be as good as he was in the books, and won't fit in as well. #3 Reviewer input. Everyone who made a comment along these lines just about insisted that Harry not be placed in the Lion's den. There was one positive aspect, and that would be for him to have at least some good influence on his life. It would highlight his internal struggle a bit. Either way, the cons win here. No Gryffindor.

Hufflepuff: While quite interesting, I already have a fic with Harry as a Hufflepuff ((Too Much Time On My Hands, if you want to check it out)) and didn't really want to go over the same general things multiple times. Hufflepuff is out.

Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin: Ravenclaw and Slytherin were my two main choices and it took a lot of pondering to choose one over the other. Both houses value brains. Both houses can fit those with ambition. Slytherin is cliché but more interesting to write. Ravenclaw had reviewer support But I didn't feel that Harry had enough desire to learn things simply for the sake of learning them. I flipped a coin (it ruled in favor of Slytherin) and then decided that a coin was too random to determine something like this and it needed real serious thought. It was finally a small series of ideas that came to me that pushed the decision the way it did. It sounded like a real writing challenge to write a Harry in Slytherin story that didn't fall into one of the two common choices. ((Harry and Draco Malfoy competing for dominance over the house while Harry looks to the other houses(or Blaise Zambini/Daphne Greengrass) for friendship, or Harry and Draco (and sometimes Daphne/Blaise) versus asshole!Ron and his newly recruited Gryffindor cronies. The latter option commonly turns into H/D slash but occasionally has Draco paired up with one of the two girls and Harry with the other.)) I would have to walk the middle path between those two ideas. I want Harry to only have two real enemies: Voldemort and Himself. Fighting for his own sanity in a place where he can truly feel the pull towards the dark. I don't want Harry to be the undisputed King of Slytherin, but I don't want him to be alienated from his own house either. There must be a balance somewhere.

This will be difficult for me, but I hope I can live up to your standards. Thanks for all the input and support!

Neopyro


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